Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1887-11-30
Carter EEnrrison,s Bath.

Bon. Carter H Harrison, IN letter to iht
Chicago Mail from Hiogo, Japan, says o
the japanese people We have passed vas
acrea Of cultivated fields and seen many
thousands of people engaged in their daily
occupations We have slept in their houses
and eaten of their food. We have seer
them reekirg in sweat, but never in flih
Ne bave seen them in hilarious mrth-
naver once in vio ent anger. We have seer
,heu IL heir uakedness, but never once ir
s,.ytniag ike leWdness We have seen
aem io toilug poverty, bnt have never
en aingie look o. sulieuness or OF despair
lne have setn them ia abject poverty we
auvu ne7er seen them begglug aims, except
il few instances of total blindness and de.
crepit age. We have seen them in every
wal -h, clling ei preconcrived ideas of de.
I cenc, aud uodesty, yet we bave never no.
ticed single look or expression which
would show that any one WAS aware things
we're beiae done which modesty would for
bid
We have net women in the highway
sked down to the hips, and saw no lock
that netokened single thought of shame,
aud wilhiu few buudred yards we would
meet beautiful. well clothed woman,
0hose eyes would drop in pretty mod
~ because we gave hex e look of
iavoluuisr, admiration. There is here
nu such tbing as conventional deceacy.
VITA high cvilizstion-in many respects
yery beh-tbe people ssil seem to he, to
certain extent, In a state Of fan,mal nature.
|, The conscience seareG-or has conscience
asqer heen awae aned by a sense of sin ?
rtNA 4. altyo thc, hlan
end answer the query | cannot. l am
still il 3 species Of am0zvmont among
,his inconsistent, this great, this little,
this bright, aud yet groveiipg, immoral
people
He describes his bath at japanese hotel:
Then Que Of the girls tells US the bath is
ready. We undress aud put on robe. a
A girl shows Us the bath room. IL is down
stairs, and hes only on open japanese screen
TO shut off the eszo of the habilues OF the
house. The tub is rouad wooden vat
about four feet deep. You put your foot IN
to try the temperature. The foot 1T once
takea the hue of boiled lobster. You
nearly ehriek The girl laughs and empties
a pail of CO d water in. You then wait for
her TO 90 out. She does not bulge. You
| cant to save you, think Of japanese enough
to tell her to git Finally, 10y a lot OF awk-
ward signe, you get her beyond the screen.
But not an iEch farther. There she stands
and waits, as innocenily 81 did good old
| Eve when Adam poured into he: willing
ears his first declaration Of uudying affec-
ton.
There are things that try memo souls and
| call for heroic courage Ooc can scale the
bristng wall, can march u. to tho mouth OF
hot throated cannon, csn cunt the scat
| fold with the shining axe glistenipg in the
sun, can tell the girl he loves how he would
win and wed her, can make maiden
speech in the House ot Representatives.
But these are easy tasks compared to that
of getting into a hot bath with a pretty Jap.
arese girl looking at you through rattan
screen-looking at you, TOO, with as much
sang froid as If she was seeing three
months old baby stripped of its little flannel
shirt
Finally patience gives out, you drop your
robe end Jump in. Good heavens, the pail
of cold water did cool the thing, but the fur.
mace is still adding caloric. You feel much
as did the poor Japanese martyrs when, g
few hundred years ago, the heather wretches
boiled them into grease. You forget the
girl and eyeryh hing else and jump out thor
| ouphly clothed l. c., clothed iD scarlet skin.
All, these are things which try mems souls.
| Af6er the bath partitions are drawn be-
tween the several compartments, and we lie
down to sleep. We get into dose. Then
we hear noise 50 if two or three freight
trains were being switched on the floor The
outside wooden screens, which close the
house in, ere beiag pu5 in. said the house
is open on ali sides, but at bedtime it is all
shut up by means of sliding screens which
curing the day, are hidden in inches in the
/ walls
BY this time we begin to itch. They say
fl les abound in Japan. have not seen a
| ioele one. But. when wax eful, imagination
/ or reality has made them crawl about me in
! reckless redundancy. at last we get to
sleep, and early the next morning take our
breakfast.